Governorship of Mike Huckabee
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| Governorship of Mike Huckabee July 15, 1996 – January 9, 2007 | |
| Party | Republican |
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| Election | |
| Seat | Governor's Mansion |
 Seal of Arkansas | |
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Mike Huckabee served as the third Republican governor of Arkansas since Reconstruction from 1996 to 2007.
In 1996, incumbent Democratic governor Jim Guy Tucker was convicted of fraud. The Arkansas Constitution, like nearly all state constitutions in the United States, does not allow convicted felons to hold office, so Tucker was forced to resign. However, Tucker, insisting he had a strong case for appeal,[1] rescinded his resignation as Huckabee was preparing to be sworn in on July 15. Within a few hours, Tucker reinstated his resignation after Huckabee threatened to initiate impeachment proceedings against Tucker.[2] Huckabee was sworn in as Governor of Arkansas on July 15, 1996. In November 1998, Huckabee was elected to a full four-year term by defeating retired Colonel Gene McVay in the primary and Jonesboro attorney Bill Bristow in the general election, becoming the state's third elected Republican governor since Reconstruction. In November 2002, Huckabee was reelected to his second four-year term by defeating State Treasurer Jimmie Lou Fisher, garnering 53 percent of the vote. By the end of his term, Huckabee owned the third-longest tenure of any Arkansas governor. Only Democrats Orval Faubus, who served six consecutive two-year terms (1955–1967), and Bill Clinton, who served 11 years, 11 months (1979–1981; 1983–1992), had longer tenures.
The first years
In late 1996, Huckabee campaigned for ballot Amendment 1, a plan to adjust property tax rules to make school funding more equal across the state, and Amendment 2, a constitutional amendment increasing the state sales tax 0.125 percent to improve the state's park system and natural resources.[1][3][4] As part of the campaign, Huckabee traveled the entire length of the Arkansas River within Arkansas by boat.[5] Amendment 1 passed 52%-48% and Amendment 2 passed 51%-49%.[6]
Huckabee proclaimed 1997 as a year of racial reconciliation by saying "Let every one of us make it our priority to bring reconciliation, not so much that we can force it or legislate it, because we cannot, but that we begin in each of our own lives to purpose in our hearts that we will not harbor anger, hostility, prejudice, bigotry and racism toward any person."[2][7]
Huckabee signed legislation to create a health insurance program which extended coverage to children of lower-income families, to be funded in part by Medicaid, SCHIP, and a tobacco industry lawsuit settlement.[8] The program, ARKids First, reduced the number of uninsured children to nine percent (compared with 12 percent for the nation) in 2003.[9] Also in his first year as governor Huckabee signed a partial birth abortion ban and a $7.6 Million Smart Start program for primary school students to learn "the basic skills of reading, math, and character". Huckabee vetoed a $140 million bill for capital improvements. The Arkansas General Assembly overrode the veto.[10]
Huckabee signed the Child Welfare Agency Licensing Act in 1997. This bill has provisions which allow religious groups to contract for social services with the state without having to compromise their principles. An excerpt reads,
Provided that the health, safety and welfare of children in the care of a child welfare agency is not endangered, nothing in this act shall be construed to permit the Board to promulgate or enforce any rule that has the effect of: (A) interfering with the religious teaching or instruction offered by a child welfare agency; (B) infringing upon the religious beliefs of the holder(s) of a child welfare agency license; (C) infringing upon the right of an agency operated by a religious organization to consider creed in any decision or action relating to admitting or declining to admit a child or family for services; (D) infringing upon the parents' right to consent to a child's participating in prayer or other religious practices while in the care of the child welfare agency; (E) prohibiting the use of corporal discipline.[11]
Huckabee made sure that state agencies were compliant with charitable choice.[12] His administration issued guidelines in October 2000, which allow religious groups to offer voluntary religious programs and to leave their religious artifacts on the walls as long as welfare clients are not pressured to convert and tax money doesn't directly underwrite them. Religious groups are allowed to reject a job candidate on religious grounds. The guidelines also guarantee that any client can receive alternative placement if the client objects to a religious provider.[13]
In a February 1998 presidential straw poll of 65 Christian Coalition leaders, Huckabee came in second to John Ashcroft and ahead of Steve Forbes, J. C. Watts and George W. Bush.[14]
On May 22, 1998, the Arkansas Ethics Commission fined Huckabee US$1,000 for failing to report campaign payments made to himself and his wife.[15] In October 1998 the Arkansas Times suggested Huckabee used a fund set up for the maintenance of the Governor's Mansion for his own personal use.[16][17] The Arkansas Times later reported Huckabee was listed as the recipient of furniture given to the Governor's Mansion and not the Mansion itself.[18] Tom Mars, Huckabee's attorney, denied any misuse or inappropriate actions.[19]
Sentence commutations
Wayne DuMond case
Huckabee has come under criticism for his handling of the case of Wayne DuMond (also spelled Dumond), a convicted rapist who was released during Huckabee's governorship. Despite a crude castration and a professed religious conversion in prison, DuMond subsequently sexually assaulted and murdered a woman in Missouri.[20] DuMond's case had attracted national attention in the mid-1990s from critics of President Clinton who felt that Clinton, Arkansas governor at the time of the rape, had been too harsh with DuMond because DuMond's victim was a distant Clinton relative. Clinton had recused himself from any involvement in the case. Before taking office, Huckabee met with DuMond's wife and privately announced his intention that DuMond be set free, stating his unhappiness with the way Clinton handled the case.[21]
On September 20, 1996, Huckabee publicly announced his intention of commuting DuMond's sentence to time served. DuMond had originally been sentenced to life plus twenty years in prison, but in 1992, Tucker reduced the sentence to 39½ years, which gave DuMond the possibility of parole.[22] Although there was strong pressure to commute DuMond's sentence from Clinton critics ill-informed by the New York Post columns of Steve Dunleavy, a close friend and writer for Rupert Murdoch,[23] there was also strong opposition to Huckabee's plan from DuMond's victims, female Arkansas legislators, and various law enforcement officials, leaving Huckabee in a difficult situation politically.[20][24][25]
On October 31, 1996, Huckabee met privately with the parole board to talk about the DuMond case. The Arkansas Times has argued that this closed-door meeting appeared to violate Arkansas' FOIA law.[26] On January 16, 1997, DuMond was granted parole, just five months after he had been rejected. Huckabee released a statement saying, "I concur with the board's action and hope the lives of all those involved can move forward. The action of the board accomplishes what I sought to do in considering an earlier request for commutation ... In light of the action of the board, my original intent to commute the sentence to time served is no longer relevant."[20] The parole was granted on the condition that DuMond leave the state. He moved to Smithville, Missouri, in 1999 and was later convicted there of sexually assaulting and murdering a woman who lived near his home.[24] DuMond was also a suspect in the murder of a pregnant woman in Platte County, Missouri.[24] DuMond died in prison in 2005.[27] Pulaski County Prosecuting Attorney Larry Jegley has argued Huckabee granted too many clemencies.[28]
In 2005, The Arkansas Times reported on the role that Huckabee played in the parole board's decision.[26]
When questioned about the case during his presidential campaign in 2007, Huckabee denied pressuring any parole board members to release DuMond, despite three of the parole board members stating that they felt he did pressure them to do so.[29] Huckabee's official website states: "Governor Huckabee either denied Wayne DuMond's clemency request, or took no action (which is the same as a denial) on four separate occasions." The website states that it was Governor Jim Tucker who "made Wayne DuMond immediately eligible for parole",[30] which, his website says, is granted by the parole board and not by the governor.[citation needed]
Maurice Clemmons case
In an unrelated matter, Huckabee also commuted the sentence of Maurice Clemmons, the primary person of interest in the November 29, 2009, murders of four Lakewood, Washington police officers, because Clemmons was 17 at the time of his offenses.
